Do you have what it takes to be a Fight Night warrior? Fight Night is back - for our 11th year - on 24 May 2018. 20 fearless channel contenders will once again immerse themselves into the brutal world of boxing to raise money for their chosen charities.

What opportunities will the enlarged company offer partners, and what can they expect from the vendor in the second half of 2018? All will be revealed in this web seminar, which will see Datto SVP Mark Banfield lay out the vendor’s plans and discuss the investments it is making in its UK business.

Many businesses are moving to the cloud. In fact, 12% of SMBs have already made the move, and by 2020, 50% of SMBs will have moved all of their business systems to the cloud. Take advantage of this huge market opportunity by becoming a cloud service provider for your existing business.

To grow, to remain relevant to the customers, and to remain profitable, IT channels (in all their forms) will have to master a number of business model transformations in the cloud and digital transformation era. Read more to learn about the key transformations that IT channels will need to address, in order to bring new capabilities to customers and be successful in the future.

The research also revealed that SMEs are predicted to make the most cutbacks,
with small businesses seeing a 2.54 per cent fall in investment, medium
businesses a 2.42 per cent fall and large companies of over 2,500 employees only
a 0.9 per cent fall.

Business leaders also cited their top financial priority as ‘improving
profitability’ (62.3 per cent), followed by ‘reinvesting in the business’ (46.3
per cent) and ‘increasing turnover’ (39.5 per cent). ‘Returning cash to
shareholders’ was only a priority for 15.4 per cent.

Peter Austin, general manager SFS, said: “The primary reason that companies
are putting back their procurement plans is because they are overly reliant on
bank finance, which we know is badly hit by the credit crunch and the subject of
major credit limit revisions and cost increases.

“Historically, the UK’s reliance on bank finance is reflective of an
ownership mentality that has become ingrained during the years of inexpensive
credit.”

Respondents were also asked where their investment priorities lie over the
next three years, with half stating IT software (50.5 per cent) , 49.7 per cent
responded IT hardware and 40.7 per cent said training.

Austin added: “A leasing plan would help businesses avoid the need for a
large upfront payment, spread costs and bring much-needed transparency to their
financial planning.”